Disc Read Error and cd/dvd drive dead- is my comp done?

I did it to myself.

First, the only problem I had on my PC laptop recently was that it would go into standby and never come out. I would get a dark blue screen after touching the keys. I would have to reboot the computer about 4 times for everything to load properly. So I figured I'd restore to an earlier point.
That solved the issue.
Until...I realized a whole bunch of pictures I had transfered from my camera to my computer were now missing. (I have a back up external drive but these pics didn't make the last back up).So I do a system restore undo. Dumb Dumb

THe laptop worked fine for one day.....I let it go into standby by accident. And now it won't start up ...gives me disc read error... hit CTL ALT DLT...but that does not help.

The doozy is that recently my cd/dvd drive stopped reading discs and I was planning on buying another cd/dvd drive, but didn't yet.

So.....I can't run a XP disc to try recovery....and I don't even have the original XP disc anymore either.

Cleaned up some horrible malware on my laptop last month. Ever since then this has all happened. It's a dell latitude, a hand-me-down from an ibm exec. Had it since 2004.

The computer also needs a memory upgrade. Add it all together. Memory. new disc , possibly hardware, someone fixing it......
Should I just buy a new computer????

I'm writing this post from my other Dell laptop computer.

Any thoughts?????:confused